swung to the right, dipped abruptly
into a narrow gulch, skirted a clump of junipers, and looked down upon
a little basin hidden snugly in the gorge. A wisp of pungent smoke rose
to his nostrils. The pony began cautiously the sharp descent. The
escarpment was of disintegrated granite which rang beneath the hoofs of
the animal. A pebble rolled to the edge of the bluff and dropped into the
black pit below.

From the gulf a challenging voice rose. "Hello, up there!"

"It's me--Joe," answered the rider.

"Time you were gettin' here," growled the other, as yet only a voice in
the darkness.

Slowly the horse slid forward to a ribbon of trail that led less
precipitously to the camp.

"'Lo, Joe. Fall off an' rest," a one-armed man invited. By the light of
the camp-fire he was a hard-faced, wall-eyed citizen with a jaw like a
steel trap.

Yankie dismounted and straddled to the fire. "How-how; I'm heap hungry,
boys. Haven't et since mornin'."

"We're 'most out of grub. Got nothin' but jerked beef an' hard-tack. How
are things a-stackin', Joe?" asked a heavy-set, bow-legged man with
a cold, fishy eye.

"Looks good, Dave. I'll lead the cattle to you. It'll be up to you an'
Albeen an' Dumont to make a get-away with 'em."

"Don't you worry none about that. Once I get these beeves on the trail
there can't no shorthorn cattleman take 'em away from me."

"Oh, you're doin' this thing, are you?" drawled Albeen offensively.
"There's been a heap of big I talk around here lately. First off, I want
to tell you that when you call Homer Webb a shorthorn cattleman you've
got another guess comin'. He's a sure enough old-timer. Webb knocked the
bark off'n this country when it was green, an' you got to rise up early
an' travel fast if you want to slip over anything on him,"

"That's whatever," agreed Yankie. "I don't love the old man a whole lot.
I've stood about all from him I'm intendin' to. One of these days it's
goin' to be him or me. But the old man's there every jump of the road. He
knew New Mexico when Los Portales was a whistlin' post in the desert.
He's fought through this war an' come through richer than when he
started. If I was lookin' for an easy mark I'd sure pass up Webb."

"He's got you lads buffaloed," jeered Roush. "Webb looks like anybody
else to me. I don't care if he's worth a million. If he fools with me
he'll find I fog him quick."

"I've known fellows before that got all filled up with talk an' had to
steam